240 THE HEARTS AFFECTIONS. MASANIELLO. 



appalling ! I held it to Lady Octavia, " behold ! do I dream ?" ex- 

 claimed I : her colour faded to the ashiness of death, yet doubt and 

 perplexity were strongly depicted on her countenance. "This is some 

 deception!'* said she, slightly recoiling, ** methinks, Saville, you mock 

 me with phantasies ?'^ Tortured with horrid ideas, I adjured her to deal 

 candidly by me. My entreaties woke her resentment — suspicion, jealousy, 

 and alarm raised a tempest within her bosom, and she answered me with 

 the keenest sarcasm and reproach ; her cheek burned and her eye flashed 

 with resentment — proud and stately beauty, can I ever forget thee ? 

 Goaded with her ill-timed distrust, I abruptly bade her adieu, and 

 descended the staircase ; as I was quitting the house, my eye fell upon 

 the domestic who opened the door — his features were certainly familiar 

 — where had I seen them ? The man observed my emotion, and mis- 

 construed it. ** You perhaps recollect me. Sir ?'* ** Impossible ! can it 

 be that you >vere in the service of Colonel M. ?" *' I was. Sir, — a 

 week since I quitted — " ** What of Miss M. ? how is she ? where is 

 the family?" The man's colour changed ; "ah! Sir! poor lady, she 

 died at Madeira j the news arrived yesterday." * * * * 



THE HEART'S AFFECTIONS. 



It never yet was in the power of words. 



To tell tlie heart's affections; pure and deep, 



Breathing more melody than sweetest chords, 



And calm and tranquil, as an infant's sleep : 



Happier than childhood ere it learn to weep, 



And firm as martyr faith, when call'd to die ; 



A beacon fire when tempests round us sweep. 



And oh ! the hand's kind pressure, or the tearful eye, 



Tell they not more than words most eloquent reply ? 



L. 



In Naples, Masaniello is forgotten. Though the performance of " The 

 Dumb Girl of Portici" be allowed in every other theatre in Europe, it 

 will never be represented at Naples. Here the name of Masaniello is 

 never heard — no one knows, or seems to know, that such a one ever 

 acted a great part on the political stage of that city. If any one be 

 acquainted with the circumstances, he conceals it as a secret not to be 

 divulged. Mr. Oefele, a German traveller, affords some very ludicrous 

 instances of this in the manner he sought to purchase a few publications 

 relative to this singular revolution, which were shown to him in an old 

 bookseller's shop, of which the windows were half closed. These were 

 only a few wretched panegyrics of the illustrissimo Conte d'Arcos, 

 Governor of Naples at the time of Masaniello's revolt, and for which a 

 price was asked somewhat in the mysterious manner of the Sybil, when 

 she offered her prophecies to Tarquinius. No work on this singular 

 event in the history of Naples is allowed to be given to the student 

 frequenting the National Library without permission from the highest 

 authority. The name of Masaniello, and every historical monument 

 calculated to awaken a sense of the deep degradation in which the people 

 are now sunk, are sought to be enveloped in the profoundest oblivion. 



